The Tableaux Grab Bag, July 2026

Storm King Art Center – New Windsor, NY

I had heard of Storm King Art Center in New York’s Hudson Valley for years—one of those places that comes up repeatedly when people discuss memorable cultural experiences—and I finally made my first visit this summer. I’m happy to report that it not only lived up to the hype, it absolutely blew me away. Set across hundreds of acres of rolling hills, fields, and woodlands, Storm King offers a combination of world-class art and breathtaking natural beauty.

Photo by Catherine Chester

I’m generally a fan of sculpture parks, but Storm King is in a league of its own, in scale and beauty.  Many of the sculptures were created with their specific locations in mind, while others were later acquired and then thoughtfully placed across the property's hills and meadows.  It felt more to me like an exploration than a museum visit. Around every corner was a new view, a new perspective, or a sculpture perfectly framed by the surrounding landscape. I was captivated. It's the kind of place that's hard to describe and easy to recommend.

Catherine Chester

“The Inspector Lynley Mysteries” and “Lynley”

My wife and I have the very bad habit of watching British mysteries during supper. “Slow Horses,” “Foyle’s War;” “Inspector Morse” and its sequels and prequel; and dozens of others. We require only good writing, a pinch of wit, and nothing so gory that it would interfere with, say, a plate of lasagna.  

Our most recent favorites are the two Lynley series, both of them in the cozy mystery subgenre, based on the Inspector Lynley books by Elizabeth George.

All great fictional detectives are oddballs, more or less, and Detective Inspector (DI) Thomas Lynley is that. An Oxford-educated earl, Lynley is not at all at home in his home, Asherton Hall, and very much at home in the working-class milieu of the police force, where he doesn’t quite belong.

When he’s assigned to the East Anglia Metropolitan Police station, he’s paired with another officer no one knows what to do with—Detective Seargeant (DS) Barbara Havers, an intelligent but combative subordinate who is on her last warning.

They’re expected to fail and disappear. Instead, the pair quickly discover a chemistry that helps them solve the station’s most perplexing murders.

Come for the mystery, stay for the cars. Image created by ChatGPT

I can’t vouch for the authenticity of actor Nathaniel Parker’s portrayal of a posh, but he has the cars: a 1973 Jensen Interceptor Mark II and a handmade 1968 Bristol 410 that inexplicably takes the Jensen’s place mid-series.

We watched the newer, shorter “Lynley” (2025, BritBox) first. The Jensen is sleeker, the bodies buffer, and the skin tones more varied. The tension between Lynley and Havers is stronger and more class-based. I find myself slightly preferring the original series with Parker (2001, BritBox)—Lynley and Havers quickly become a well-functioning team, and Parker’s Lynley is somewhat less of a saint. There’s a hint of sexual possibility between them but nothing more. Theirs is a work marriage, with benefits reserved for viewers and, most of the time, the scales of justice.

Joe Polidoro